No longer merely
a doing-something-overseas-somewhere annoyance, the UN has jumped right into
the backyards of Americans, particularly firearms owners. It happened at the
UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms in July 2001.

First, to understand
what happened, we must understand the UN buzz words:

• "Illicit Trade" means any manufacturing, transporting,
transferring, selling or buying of firearms without government permission.

Now we can decode
the title. It actually was the UN Conference on Government Regulation and
Prohibition of Private Firearms Ownership.

Second, we must
recognize what the governments agreed to do. According to the Conference’s
published Action Programme, all of the attending nations were "convinced
of the need for global commitment to a comprehensive approach to promote the
prevention, reduction and eradication of the illicit trade in small arms and
light weapons as a contribution to international peace and security."

Translation:
the nations agreed to a worldwide program of "gun control."

Third, we must
know what the nations plan to do. Under the Action Programme, each
nation will:

• Mandate
marking of every firearm manufactured.

• Gather
"comprehensive and accurate records" about every aspect of private
firearms possession: the manufacturing, the ownership, and the buying, trading,
transferring and selling of all guns.

• Keep
in government possession all firearms ownership and transaction records
"for as long as possible."

• Destroy
all firearms that each government might seize or confiscate, (unless the
government chooses to keep the weapons for its own purposes).

Translation:
Governments will register and track every firearm and every firearm owner
in the world; confiscation and destruction of privately owned firearms to
follow when the current regimes so decide.

Fourth, we must
know how the governments intend to implement their worldwide "gun control"
plans. At the Conference they agreed to:

• Enact
"adequate laws" to "exercise effective control" over
all transfers of firearms.

• "Establish
national coordination agencies" to enforce the gun prohibition laws,
and to "prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade" in firearms
by "tracing, ... collection and destruction of small arms and light
weapons."

• "Identify
groups and individuals engaged in the illegal manufacture, trade, ... transfer,
[or] possession ... of illicit small arms" and to prosecute such groups
and individuals.

• Interconnect
national police agencies to exchange information with other governments,
the World Customs Organization and the International Criminal Police Organization
(Interpol), so that national governments can more easily identify, locate
and prosecute persons who violate gun prohibition laws anywhere.

Translation:
The nations’ police forces, using world police agency resources, will
actively cooperate to track down and prosecute firearms law violators.

Fifth, we must
never forget who is regulating whom. The Conference plan pushes "democratic"
countries to help military dictatorships and communist slave states in preventing
resistance to tyranny.

Nothing the Conference
did would discourage evil and despotic governments from gaining power and
killing their own people. Yet it is such evil governments who have killed
more innocent unarmed citizens than all the wars and common criminal violence
combined.

Where did the
United States stand at the Conference? John Bolton, Undersecretary of State,
spoke strongly for the right to keep and bear arms. Mr. Bolton affirmed that
private firearms ownership is an individual right and a check on dangerous
governments. He did, however, say that the U.S. favors the concept of international
control of "military" weapons.

Because the U.S.
delegation would not give up entirely the individual right to keep and bear
arms, the Conference could not adopt a blanket declaration against private
firearms ownership. That’s good news, but it isn’t much to celebrate.
The Conference’s Action Programme moves the world, including
the U.S., directly toward a UN-sponsored world "gun control" system.

Gun owners must
get educated and take action. Start by ordering the powerful Gran’pa
Jack booklet "The UN is Killing Your Freedoms"
to learn how the UN endangers Americans’ precious rights -- most especially
our gun rights. Distribute copies of this article and the booklet to every
member of every gun club in America.

Save money --
order bundles of booklets, only $20.00 for 50 copies; $38 for 100 copies.
To speed delivery, JPFO pays the postage. Call (800) 869-1884 or click on
www.jpfo.org. Annual membership is still only $20, tax deductible.